16.10.17

Monkeypox: Health Minister, Adewole gives update on disease

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said all the Monkey Pox test samples obtained from Lagos tested negative.
This was disclosed during a press conference in Abuja on Monday.

He said only four cases of monkey pox have been confirmed in Nigeria.
Adewole said, “As of October 13, 2017, there were 17 suspected cases reported from Yenagoa LGA in Bayelsa State.
“We have received laboratory confirmation for Monkey pox virus from
three of these cases from the WHO Regional Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal.
Samples from 12 other cases from Bayelsa were negative.
“With these results, four suspected Monkeypox outbreak in Yenagoa
have been confirmed with laboratory evidence. The most likely source of
infection is a primary zoonotic transmission, from an animal, with
secondary person-to-person transmission.

“Since our initial announcement, a total of 43 other suspected cases
have been reported from eight other States (Akwa Ibom, Cross River,
Ekiti, Lagos, Enugu, Nasarawa, Rivers, and FCT). Of these, four cases
from Lagos have also been tested and confirmed to be negative for the
Monkeypox virus.
“We expect that many of these cases being reported from other states
in Nigeria are not caused by the Monkeypox virus, but we will continue
to investigate all those cases that fit the case definition.
“Further laboratory tests using whole genome sequencing are being
carried out by the Africa Center for Genomics and Infectious Diseases in
Redeemers University Ede, Ogun State.”